(soft, bright music plays)
3M logo. Science. Applied to Life.™ Text on screen: Enabling new levels of design with tapes. An
aerial view of a bridge spanning a countryside landscape.
VO: Cars are undergoing a fairly dramatic change.
We're transitioning from a hundred years of internal
combustion engines to electric vehicles.
Several cars drive on the bridge. The sun shines on an electric vehicle with a charger cable
plugged into the charging port. Text: Joel Sabean, 3M Global R&D Lab Leader. Joel Sabean sits in
a lab room and addresses the camera.
VO: My name's Joel Sabean, I'm an R&D director
for the Automotive and Aerospace division. I have been
with 3M for going on 34 years. 3M's a fantastic place to
work for anyone that is curious.
Two rolls of red 3M robust sealing tape of different widths on a table. The center band of a roll
of tape reads: 3M Acrylic Foam Tape.
VO: 3M has been a part of adhesives development in
automotive since the 1970s. We started out with
specialized products that have grown over time.
A close-up of the spoiler of a red car.
VO: Now we have hundreds of variants of adhesives that
enable attachment of many different types of parts to
cars.
A roll of 3M robust sealing tape and an object with tape adhered to its sides.
VO: In the past, they were all mechanically attached,
and we continue to grow that portfolio.
A man walks down a hallway guiding a white car door on a utility cart. The man turns at the end of
the hallway.
VO: Adhesives can be applied to the entire perimeter or
surface of a part and that enables the parts to
experience stress over a wide area and enables a clean
aesthetic that consumers like to see and OEM designers
like to deliver. We consider adhesives as an enabler for
clean design.
A curved metal car part spins to show all sides. Joel addresses the camera.
VO: A fundamental advantage of adhesives is to allow
the attachment to exist in a curved area, in tight spaces
where attaching the part mechanically may make it very
difficult to install. So this is part of offering design
freedom to our OEM customers.
Metal car frames move along a conveyor belt. Yellow robotic arms weld small sections of the car
creating blue sparks. Joel addresses the camera. A length of rubber padding with 3M robust
sealing tape along its side.
VO: OEMs, many times, will develop a foundational
vehicle that they would like to modify for different markets
or, over time, change the appearance of to keep its look
fresh. Because we're attaching the part adhesively, a
new part can go in the same place as an existing part
and the appearance can be updated.
A time lapse of traffic on several highways.
VO: One of the challenges, as the industry has increased
the use of adhesives, is the lack of understanding when
you've successfully applied the part.
A man wearing protective glasses observes a machine pulling two objects apart. An adhesive
between the objects stretches and breaks.
VO: Attaching an adhesively-backed part is as simple as
a mechanically-attached. It comes down to two simple
things: a clean surface and consistent pressure.
The man presses a button on a screen. Joel holds the objects in his hands. The man addresses
Joel and smiles. Joel nods at the man.
VO: 3M supplied materials and tools to make those two
processes clean and simple and over time that has
proven to be effective and reliable. Features include
toughened liners, process liners, that allow the
application of our adhesives to be automated.
Joel addresses the camera. Video footage of a red car driving through a city and tunnels at night.
VO: With the experience of 50 years in attaching
automotive parts to vehicles, 3M has developed
laboratory tests to quantify the strengths of our tape and
correlate them to the mechanical actions that parts
experience on vehicles.
An external view of the driver's side of a red car. The man guides the white car door into a room
with a blue light and a vapor mist. The door closes behind him.
VO: This allows us to quantify the strength of our existing
products and provide confidence to our OEMs that a new
product enables them to consider attaching something
that maybe in the past they could not.
A close-up of weights hanging by hooks on a machine.
Two rolls of the 3M robust sealing tape and a 3M box on a table. Joel and the man wearing
protective glasses walk together in a hallway.
VO: It enables them to open their eyes to various ways to
design a car, to assemble a car, change the look. We
consider ourselves a partner with them and our adhesive
continually evolves and improves their ability to change
and improve how those vehicles are assembled.
Text: Learn more about driving innovative design with tape. Go to 3M.com/rethinkattachment. 3M
logo. Science. Applied to Life.™ © 3M 2022. All rights reserved. 3M is a trademark of 3M.
